merylstreepingx:It was not so much what was positively in that face which remain with him after that
merylstreepingx:It was not so much what was positively in that face which remain with him after that first meeting, but all that was not as he had expected; for theirs was an age when the favoured feminine look was the demure, the obedient, the shy. It was not a pretty face. It was not a beautiful face, by any period’s standards or taste. But it was an unforgettable face. There was no artifice there, no hypocrisy, no hysteria, no mask; and above all, no sign of madness. […] All in that face had been sacrificed to the eyes. They could not conceal an intelligence, an independence of spirit; there was also a silent contradiction of any sympathy; a determination to be what she was - The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles -- source link